Wreck (The Triton Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Wreck

  The Triton Chronicles

  Alyssa Rose Ivy

  Copyright © 2019 by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by Cover Couture

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  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Cade

  2. Marigold

  3. Cade

  4. Marigold

  5. Cade

  6. Marigold

  7. Cade

  Untitled

  8. Marigold

  9. Cade

  10. Marigold

  11. Cade

  12. Marigold

  13. Cade

  14. Marigold

  15. Cade

  Thank You

  Afterward

  Soar (The Empire Chronicles #1)

  Casey

  Cade

  “What the hell?” I tried to shake off the remaining hold of sleep and the hangover that was close to setting in. How much did I drink the night before? It takes a lot to get a Pteron drunk, and I’d definitely been drunk. But how drunk was the question.

  “Hell has nothing to do with this.” The tiny woman standing at the foot of my bed tapped her foot impatiently. Tiny pixie. This was definitely a pixie. I’d known one before, and she was a spitfire. I knew better than to underestimate her size.

  “Uh, great. But what are you doing in my room?” It wasn’t the first time a girl I didn’t know had been in my room, but I was positive I hadn’t slept with this one. I hadn’t been that drunk, and pixies really weren’t my type.

  “I have an urgent message for you. Well, not a message as much as a summons.” She patted a messenger bag she wore slung across her body. It was a black bag with silver and gold stars hand drawn all over it, but not in a child-like way, in a really cool, might actually be something a designer came up with, kind of way.

  “A summons?” I sat up in bed, careful not to let the blanket fall below my waist. I slept naked and didn’t want to give the pixie an eyeful.

  “Yes. From the Triton King himself.” She raised her chin.

  “The Triton King?” That was a new one. I mean I’d heard the term before, but only in the supernatural history books.

  “Yes.” She held out a small blue envelope. “Here you go.”

  “Uh, could you bring it closer?” I was asking for her sake as well as mine.

  “Oh. Sure.” She walked over and handed it to me.

  “Okay. Thanks.” I waited for her to leave.

  She seemed to understand my hesitation. “I’ll wait. I’m sure you will want a guide.”

  “A guide?” I rubbed my eyes. Maybe I was dreaming this whole thing. I’d had stranger dreams before.

  “Open the envelope. It should answer all your questions.” She gestured at the blue paper with her hand.

  “I’m not sure I want my questions answered.”

  “How could you not want your questions answered?” She adjusted the strap of her bag. “Everyone wants their questions answered.”

  “I want to go back to sleep.” I rubbed my forehead. “I wasn’t ready to get up yet.”

  She pointed to the analog clock on the far wall. “It’s close to noon.”

  “So?”

  “You’re a king. Shouldn’t you be up doing king stuff?”

  “King stuff?” I felt a smile creep across my face. “Is that what you call it?”

  “Is there another way you’d like me to refer to it?”

  “Do you work for the Triton King?” Did he have personal messengers? Maybe that was something I should invest in.

  “Me?” She put a hand to her chest. “Are you kidding?”

  “No. I mean you showed up here with a message from him, so it doesn’t seem like a huge jump to think that you work for him.” It wasn’t a short trip if she was really bringing me a message straight from under the water.

  “Nope. I’m a Pixie for hire.” She pulled out a card. “Feel free to recommend me to any of your friends and associates.”

  I took the card and looked at it. “Well hello, Morgan. No assignment too burdensome or personal?”

  “Nope. I take my job seriously.”

  “How did you end up in this business?”

  “Oh. The usual way.”

  “Suppose I don’t know what the usual way a pixie would get into the courier business.”

  “It’s what my family has been doing for years… you have to have a medallion.”

  “A medallion?” I stretched. Maybe I’d learn something new from my visitor.

  “Sure. A medallion. It keeps there being too many pixie messengers running around. Kind of like the way they regulate the taxis in New York City.”

  “You’ve been to New York?” I tried to imagine my little visitor running around the Big Apple.

  “Of course I’ve been to New York.” She put a hand on her hip. “You think I’ve been delivering messages to the supernatural sorts for this long and haven’t been to New York?”

  Uh oh. I’d offended her. “Sorry. I was just asking.”

  “And I’m sorry.” She let her hands fall to her sides. "You may be my future customer. I should be more careful.”

  “Also, I’m a king.” I figured I should throw that in there for good measure.

  “Yes. Technically you are.”

  “Technically?” This I had to hear.

  “Well, you got it as a thank you gift of sorts.”

  “Okay, that's enough of that conversation.” Technically she was right, but what did the specifics matter? I had been given the position; that’s what counted. “Let me see what this message says.”

  I broke the seal on the envelope and started to open it: immediately water poured out. I mean poured out. All over. Seeping through the sheets onto me. I jumped from the bed. So much for saving the pixie from an eyeful. “What the hell is this?” I closed the envelope.

  “Just read it.” If she was bothered by my nakedness, she didn’t show it.

  “Will that happen again if I open it?” I wasn’t in the mood to flood my entire house.

  “No. It only happens once.” She put a hand on one of the posts of my bed. “Come on now. We don’t have all day.”

  Normally I’d have given her an attitude for being so disrespectful, but I kind of liked her audacity. I trusted her and opened the envelope again. I pulled out a damp sheet of brown paper. It was a mess of ink until the ink started to swirl and actual words started to appear.

  To Cade Daly, Pteron King of California.

  Your appearance is required.

  The Ocean. Sunday 4:00.

  Ordered by the King of the Tritons.

  “Uh, what?” I stared at the paper. First, they’d gotten my title wrong. It was the west coast, not just California, but that was beside the point.

  “What does it say?” Morgan came around to look at the sheet of paper. “What’s the problem? That’s perfectly clear.”

  “Perfectly clear?” I watched her face, waiting for her to laugh because she had to be joking.

  “It’s a summons. You show up.”

  “I show up at the ocean? Because that’s a specific location?”

  “Yes.” Her expression was pretty much blank.

  “What ocean? Ever think about that?” Last time I checked there was more than one.

  “Well, from here I’d suggest the Pacific. Technically you could get on a plane and head to the Atl
antic if you prefer. You were just mentioning New York. But it doesn’t matter. They all connect as one.”

  “Wait. So you were being serious? This really means go to an ocean at 4:00 on Sunday?”

  “Well, you can’t just go to the ocean. You will have to go in it.”

  “Yeah… I don’t really do oceans. I’m a Pteron. I fly.” I itched to release my wings, but I was already naked in front of this pixie. I didn’t need to add my wings into the mix.

  “Well, evidently it’s expected that you do an ocean this time.”

  “No one can order me around.” Not even other kings. Plenty had tried, particularly one annoying one located in New Orleans.

  “I wouldn’t mess with the King of the Tritons if I were you.”

  “Mess with? Who said mess with? He’s the one sending me messages that soak my bed.” I eyed the wet sheets again.

  “It will dry.”

  I found my underwear on the floor and stepped into them. Might as well at least take care of my nakedness.

  “I’ve already seen you naked now. I don’t see why you are bothering to get dressed.”

  She yawned. That had better not have been a statement. I knew I was a good specimen in that department.

  “Because I don’t actually like being naked in front of you.”

  “You are a shifter. I thought shifters were totally fine with nudity.”

  “I’m a Pteron, not a wolf.” Thank God for that. Pterons descended from birds, although now we only shifted into a mostly humanoid form. A humanoid form with large, powerful wings we could release or retract.

  “Still. Plus, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. Your package is of very adequate size.”

  “Package. Okay. That’s enough. And I'm more than adequate size.” Not that I cared about defending myself to a pixie.

  “I can’t say I’ve seen all that many Pterons naked, but—”

  I didn’t wait for her to finish. “Wait. You’ve seen other Pterons naked?” This pixie was getting more and more interesting.

  “Yes. Yes I have.” She smiled.

  “Okay, you know what? I don’t want to know anything about that.” I did though. I wanted to know who it was, especially since there weren’t all that many Pterons around. But I wouldn’t give her the pleasure of knowing she had piqued my interest.

  “You were the one who asked.”

  “I didn’t really ask.” I found a shirt and pulled it on. Next I needed to find pants. Pants were important. “I was just surprised.”

  “Okay. That isn’t really of issue. I have seen to it that you have received your summons. You understand the terms and what you need to do.”

  “I’m not going to just get in the ocean on Sunday at 4:00.” That was ludicrous.

  “Oh, yes you are.”

  “I’m not. That’s insane.”

  “I need you to confirm you understand so I can leave.” She tapped her sandal clad foot.

  “I understand. But I’m not going.” I eyed a pair of khakis halfway under my bed and picked them up.

  “You have to go.”

  “Why do you care? Aren’t you paid for delivering the message?” I stepped into the pants. Okay, I was now presentable.

  “Yes.” She nodded.

  “Then why does it matter to you if I go or not?”

  “Because what was the point of delivering the message if you aren’t going to go?”

  “Does there have to be a point?” My head started to pound. I needed to find some water. I eyed the wet sheets. Fresh water. “Not everything has a point.”

  “You want to go. Trust me.”

  “Because I don’t want to mess with this guy?” I wasn’t letting some sea king worry me.

  “Also, because of what he has to say.”

  “You know what he has to say?” Now this was news.

  “Not exactly. But I know he wants to talk about something of value.”

  “Something of value?” Okay, this changed things. I might get something out of the deal.

  “I don’t know the details, so don’t press. But that’s what the talk is.”

  “So I just get in the ocean?” Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. There wasn’t much going on at work at the moment, hence how I could sleep until noon.

  “Yes. Just get in the ocean. You’ll get where you need to be.”

  I thought about it. Could it really hurt to check it out? Yes. It could hurt. I could end up dead, or a host of other possibilities. But could I really handle going forward without knowing what this thing of value was?

  “Fine. I’ll go.” Nope, I couldn’t ignore it. I was going to be taking a dip in the ocean Sunday at four.

  “Great.” Her face lit up. “If you want, I could meet you there.”

  “Is that generally part of the package? You accompany the person or whatever?”

  “No. I’m offering this on my personal time.”

  “Dare I ask why?”

  “Because I'm curious what it’s all about.”

  “Okay, Morgan. That’s fine.”

  “Oh…” She looked down at her hands. “I need to come clean. My name isn’t Morgan.”

  “Then why does it say it on your card?” I picked up the card from where I tossed it on my bed stand. It definitely said Morgan.

  “That’s my cousin’s name. I’m using her cards.”

  “Wait. Are you even a legit messenger?”

  “I’m new to this.” She ran her fingers over one of the stars on her bag.

  “What’s your name then?”

  “Tonia.”

  “Okay, Tonia. Level with me. Were you even supposed to deliver this message to me?”

  “Well, Morgan was.”

  “And where is Morgan right now?” I really hoped she didn’t say dead. Any excuse would be better than dead.

  “She’s, uh…she’s busy.”

  “Busy doing what?” Alive busy was fine.

  “He’s a bartender from Austin.”

  “Wait. What did you just say? It’s a he, not a what, keeping her busy?”

  “She always does this. Finds a guy. Can’t focus on anything else. The only good thing is I get to step in and make some extra cash.”

  “So you’re not really a messenger then?” I wasn’t sure what to think about her admission. It didn’t really matter.

  “On the side…”

  “What’s your primary job?”

  “An accountant. Here.” She pulled out a different card. “Take a card. I can handle any of your accounting needs.”

  “You are something else, Tonia. If that’s really your name.” I turned the card over in my hand.

  “Oh. It’s my name.” She winked. “Or at least that’s what everyone calls me.” She opened the door to my room. “See you on Sunday, Cade.”

  “Wait. Where are we meeting?”

  “Oh. I’ll find you.” She winked again.

  I looked at the wet mess that was my bed. I guess I wasn’t going back to sleep.

  Marigold

  “Sometimes I hate men so much I wish the entire world was full of women.” Anastasia lay back on my bed, her golden-blond hair splayed out around her in the way that one usually only sees in shampoo commercials.

  “Oh, come on. You know you don’t mean that.” I could usually humor my friend, but not when she talked like this. I knew she definitely didn’t mean it. “Ready to give up your Dire Wolf already?’

  “Hunter is not my Dire Wolf.” She rolled her neck so she wasn’t looking at me. She knew I’d see the truth clear on her face. She was head over heels for a wolf, and she didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t blame her. I’d never want to fall for a land dweller.

  “He wants to be. And you want him to be.” I wasn’t entirely sure why I was teasing her, but it sure beat thinking about more important matters.

  “No more Hunter talk. I haven’t even talked to him in months.” She put an arm over her eyes dramatically.

  "You are the one who brought up this
topic.”

  “I did not bring up Hunter. I brought up men. Big difference.”

  “Oh. Hunter is not just a man, eh?” I couldn’t help it. Not when she made it so easy.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Do I now?” I was in a bit of a crazy mood.

  “Yes. Yes you do.”

  “I’m not sure I know anything.” I took a seat on the edge of the bed.

  “Relax, Mari. You know you are going to get it.” Anastasia rolled her neck again to look at me.

  “You never know.” I wasn’t going to jinx it. I hated to admit it out loud, but I was mildly superstitious.

  “Who else would?” She leaned up on an elbow.

  “Knowing my luck?” I pulled my leg up under me. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “But there’s no one else. Your brother said no when he took off.” Becoming queen was never in the cards for me until he left.

  “He could always change his mind.” I knew he wouldn’t though. He’d left our world and never looked back. I was lucky if he even called anymore.

  “You know how little he enjoys responsibility.”

  “Yeah, but he likes power.” Still, I doubted it would be enough of a draw to bring him back under.

  “I think responsibility scares him more than he even craves power.”

  “I guess we’ll find out on Sunday.” I’d be blown over if he showed up. And I knew he wouldn’t be showing up to get the position; he’d be showing up for me. But even that thought was far-fetched. “Sunday. It seems so far away.”

  “It’s two days.” She sat up and scooted in next to me.

  “So far away.”

  “And you think I’m dramatic?” She put an arm over my shoulder. “You need to chill.”

  “You should never count your chickens before they hatch.”